Use your iPhone or iPad as a trackpad for your Mac – free for a limited time

1 March 2016, 01:54


WiFi Mouse is an iOS app that lets you use the screen of your iPhone or iPad as a virtual trackpad for controlling the mouse cursor on a Mac. Needless to say, it’s a fantastically useful app if you haven’t already got a trackpad, or if you use a Mac as a media center attached to a TV. On an iPad in particular it works very well, even if the app is merely a iPhone app running in zoomed mode.

And the best news is that WiFi Mouse is free at the present time. As usual, you’ll want to grab it sooner rather than later to avoid paying the $2.99 usual price.

Setting it up is easy, as follows:

  1. On your Mac, download and install the Mac mouse server app. You’ll need to right-click the installation package and select Open from the menu that appears, and then open in the dialog box that also appears. Run the app once it’s installed.
  2. A pop-up window will appear after a few seconds showing the IP address of the mouse server. Make a note of the first of these, which will be four numbers separated by periods – something like 192.168.1.20.
  3. On your iPhone or iPad, visit the App Store and download WiFi Mouse Pro.
  4. Open WiFi Mouse Pro on your iPhone or iPad and tap the Auto Connect button. With any luck you’ll connect to the Mac. If not, type the IP address you noted earlier on the Mac into the text field beneath the Auto Connect button, and then tap the Connect button.
  5. You should now have control over the Mac’s mouse cursor. Just drag in the black area of the iPad or iPhone.

Controlling the cursor is pretty simple:

  • Single clicking: Tap the iPhone or iPad screen;
  • Double-clicking: Tap twice on the iPhone or iPad screen;
  • Right-clicking: Tap with two fingers on the iPhone or iPad screen;
  • Scrolling: Either use the on-screen control, or drag up or down with two fingers.

To quit the trackpad control, click the mouse server menu bar icon on the Mac, and select Quit Mouse Server. Then close the iOS app. Notably, you can quit out of the iOS app to return to the main apps listing, and then go back into it without losing the connection to the Mac.



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